Lawyer for the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Basil Williams is questioning whether the Walter Rodney Com-mission of Inquiry (COI) should resume on January 26, given the pending general elections.
Williams, who is a PNCR party executive, said in the previous sessions the commissioners had expressed reservations at the inquiry resuming in a pre-election period.
Responding to questions at an APNU (the coalition of which the PNCR is part) press conference yesterday, the attorney said when he received the email about the resumption of the COI he wrote the commission’s secretary, Hugh Denbow, querying whether “it was right to bring it at this time when the Parliament has been prorogued, general and regional elections are in the air and political parties are campaigning.”
He said he is yet to receive a response from Denbow.
The attorney said the commissioners had expressed some reservations personally to him about the discomfort they had with an inquiry of this nature being conducted when elections are afoot.
Stabroek News was unable to make contact with Denbow but the commission’s lead counsel Glen Hanoman said he is unaware of such an issue affecting the commission. He said that he hasn’t heard about any of the commissioners expressing any sort of fear or discomfort with holding the hearings around this time.
He noted, however, that when the last session ended he had read a report in the media that the issue was raised when the Chairman was choosing the dates for when the inquiry would most likely resume.
Hanoman said if someone feels that the inquiry ought to be suspended given the political climate in the country, President Donald Ramotar is the one who has to be written to and not Denbow because it is a presidential Com- mission of Inquiry and he is just part of the administrative staff.
Williams told reporters that APNU feels that it is unnecessary to have this type of exercise at a time like this. He noted that the PNCR’s participation is limited to having lawyers present to do cross-examinations and to challenge various aspects of evidence being given.
He said among the three witnesses who are expected to testify in the new session is Clement Rohee, the General Secretary of the PPP/C and the Minister of Home Affairs.
Asked about the PNCR’s participation in the upcoming session, Williams stressed that it will continue “doing what we have been doing usually. I can’t tell you that I will be sitting there 24/7 …but certainly I would like to be there to cross-examine someone like Mr. Rohee.”
On June 13, 1980, Rodney, a renowned academic and political activist, died in a car near John and Bent streets after a walkie-talkie, given to him by now deceased Guyana Defence Force member Gregory Smith, exploded. His brother Donald Rodney, who was with him at the time, escaped serious injury.
The PNC administration, then headed by the late president Linden Forbes Burnham, whose reign had been opposed by Rodney, has long been blamed for the murder. The party, however, has continuously denied any responsibility. The current PNCR has publicly said that it will not be cooperating with the CoI.
In addition to looking at the circumstances surrounding the death, the commissioners are also tasked with looking at the role Smith played if any, examining earlier investigations and inquiries done on and into Rodney’s death and they are to examine and report on the actions and activities of the State, including state agencies, such as the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana National Service, the Guyana People’s Militia and those who were in command and superintendence of them, to determine whether they were tasked with surveillance of and the carrying out of actions and whether they did execute those tasks and carried out those actions against the political opposition for the period January 1, 1978 to December 31, 1980.
Sir Richard Cheltenham, a Queen’s Counsel (QC) and Barbadian national is the Chairman of the Commission, which also includes Jamaican QC Jacqueline Samuels-Brown and Trinidad and Tobago Senior Counsel Seenath Jairam.
